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Workshopped

August 18th, 2012 at 03:46 am

We had a workshop at the university today, and besides being very good--albeit depressing about the state of instructional staff-- had excellent food.

This may not seem remarkable to most, but we hardly ever get food. Virtually every seminar I've been to in 15 years asks us to bring our lunch. But this was funded by a grant--so there was a terrific yogurt bar this morning and great salads. But man, I heard horror stories about people STILL not knowing what they're teaching in two weeks, about the business school cutting contracts to avoid paying benefits, about the total lack of institutional support for huge sections of the school. Yet--a very good lunch.

8 Responses to “Workshopped”

  1. Looking Forward Says:
    1345269222

    "Yet--a very good lunch."
    HA! Now that's looking on the bright side. Smile

  2. Jerry Says:
    1345297971

    Maybe they funded the lunch just to try to stave off the inevitable faculty revolt? Smile Jerry

  3. My English Castle Says:
    1345298329

    yeah, there were a lot of pissed off folks. It was interesting to see the huge differences in the way departments treat their people. We're a little bit better than most, but we have the highest number of instructors. "Let them eat lunch!"

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1345305231

    I hope things pick up for your fellow co-workers soon.

  5. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    1345305981

    Yet they present a calm, cool face to the students who have no idea. The students should know because these are issues in the quality of instruction they get for their money. It's a consumer issue to them, if nothing else.

  6. crazyliblady Says:
    1345322872

    Good news about the lunch, but the fact that faculty don't know what they will be teaching is disturbing. Don't faculty need to prepare lesson plans and syllabi with a list of when assignments are due and tests will be taken? This is just crazy.

  7. Dido Says:
    1345375769

    And, if those profs who weren't given warning about they're teaching get lower reviews as a result, they'll turn around and use it as an excuse to not give a raise/get rid of them if untenured etc.

    I can't believe teaching schedules aren't fully set. In my 20 years in academia, we always knew fall teaching schedules by March and had to have book orders in to the bookstore before May.

    It's been 3 years since I left and mostly the only thing I'm missing is my library account.

  8. My English Castle Says:
    1345413678

    Yep, they're on us to order books before the previous semester closes out. But it's the scrambling for the lower division classes in certain departments that causes this. A tenured prof whose class doesn't fill, takes some untenured academic staff class or a grad student who needs another semester of teaching grabs it.

    In contract order it goes Tenure, TA, then academic staff. Most of the academic staff has spent years teaching roughly similar things, but to not know whether you're going to get insurance or enough to live on seems to be the way some departments go. It's inexcusable. To avoid these situations, our undergrad chair sometimes has "extra" classes he holds on to without an assigned prof. Three years ago he came rushing into my office on the first day of class, asking if I was busy right then. He'd forgotten to assign his "extra" class--and the students showed up but there was no prof. He offered it to me on the spot--and always needing the money--I took it. I had no books ordered, had never taught it before, and it was an overload. The first week was pretty bumpy--and I'm sure I looked like it was MY fault in front of the students. But we build climbing walls to attract students, have cool new dorms--but the money for instruction is slashed all the time.

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